Why Your Appendix Might Be Important

Guest: Heather Smith, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Midwestern University The appendix at the end of a book is extra material that you can easily skip and still get the gist of things. It may be helpful, but it’s not critical. And for a long time, that pretty much summed up our understanding of the human appendix, too. If you’ve had yours out, no big deal because it basically has no purpose anyway.  But new research confirms what’s been a growing suspicion lately among researchers: the appendix evolved for a specific function, and research at Midwestern University in Arizona suggests that function in immunity.